The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
10 Downing Street
London Sw1A 0AA

9th November 2011

Dear David,

Food prices and the Charter to End Extreme Hunger

A considerable number of my constituents have written to me with regard to the above Charter, drawn up by Save the Children, Oxfam and a number of other organisations.
I would like to join them in calling upon you to support the Charter as a means of addressing the tragedy of mass starvation and instability in the poorest countries.
I commend the Government's refusal to look for public spending cuts in the UK's overseas aid budget, but I would urge you to pay close attention to the specific points in the Charter, in the hope that the focus of British aid and British policy in vulnerable regions like East Africa can be directed in such a way as to offer the maximum benefit.
Short-term emergency aid is of course crucial. Over the longer term we must go further though in our approach to aid and development and aim to prevent food emergencies from happening in the first place. Support for local food production is the surest way to create food security in countries and regions where a combination of environmental degradation and rising world food prices have left large populations unable to properly feed themselves.
The recent Perth Declaration on Food Security Principles offers some welcome recognition of the importance of factors like local economic infrastructure in building food security. Section 7(j), for example, which states: ‘addressing the impediments that are inhibiting economic opportunities for these important producers, including lack of affordable financing, local value-added and adequate infrastructure'. But at the same time, the Declaration also contains much in the way of vague rhetoric, and a disappointing insistence on free-market solutions to food crises: a mindset which is outdated and demonstrably damaging to food security and food sovereignty.
Section 7(i), for example, calls for ‘improving international market access for food producers, including smallholders and women, through trade liberalisation measures such as the elimination of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers and avoidance of restrictions on food exports'. How are local farmers supposed to compete with subsidised agribusiness in the US and Europe, if the system continues to demand ‘trade liberalisation'? How can those farmers sustainably feed local populations, when international institutions continue to insist on ‘avoidance of restrictions on food exports'?
Of course, such restrictions can cause instability in world food commodity prices, when they are imposed in export-oriented markets. But the point is that regions vulnerable to food insecurity, famine and the effects of climate change should not be growing food to earn money to buy food. Global markets are too precarious and too weighted towards big producers to offer food security in fragile economies like those in East Africa.
Food security and food sovereignty depend on sustainable, small-scale agriculture to create a reliable supply of readily available, affordable food. The Perth Declaration is frustratingly vague on the nature of the ‘sustainable agricultural sector' and the ‘best agricultural practices' it claims to support. Industrial-scale, export-driven and, if big business gets its way, proprietary GM agriculture are not the answer to poor countries' food problems.
I would, therefore, urge you to be bolder in outlining the kind of support that the UK is willing to offer to regions like East Africa - not just the short-term disaster relief that is necessary to save lives, but the long-term, consistent support for small farmers and sustainable production that will lead to genuine and lasting food security. Developing countries cannot grow vibrant economies until they have basic necessities like a secure food supply. I hope you will sign up to the Charter to End Extreme Hunger and give the issues raised the emphasis they deserve.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP, Brighton Pavilion

Read the Prime Minister's reply